Here are some posts I enjoyed this week:
New temples and standing stones found in Turkey’s Göbeklitepe site. I’m understanding from the mention of geophysical surveys that these 15 temples and 200 standing stones have been identified underground for future excavation or other study. Göbeklitepe, dating to the Neolithic, is a truly amazing site, startling for the complexity of its artwork, ritual structures and sheer scale—which these survey results are adding to in a big way. How and why this incredibly early place developed so much and in such intriguing ways is a puzzle that draws everybody. The human and animal representations (and mixes thereof) and the labor and effort involved boggles my mind. It will be great fun as these latest indications of temples and standing stones lead to more and more revelations about this remarkably mystical place. Anyone who imagines humans didn’t start from earliest eras with gigantic imaginations and questions about the nature of things, has to take a close look at this place. Click here for Archaeology News Network “New temples, stones found in Turkey’s Göbeklitepe site”
Not every amazing find in archaeology turns out to be amazing. A huge, sealed black sarcophagus found in Egypt stirred a flurry of hopes for grand burial goods of some ancient ruler. Nope. Several skeletons soaking silently in sewer water. Probably Ptolemaic period. Admittedly, the skeletons may offer something interesting as skeletons so often do, but I’m guessing the sewer soaking has screwed up some of that potential data, and we already have a lot of Ptolemaic skeletons, generally speaking. The scene as the many masked men (okay, the masks are medical ones not Zorro) pried open the stone coffin must have had some great tension and excitement and then . . . such a letdown. Sewer water! That just seems like the worst possible karmic kickback in the search for ancient artifacts. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Archaeologists in Egypt open large black granite sarcophagus found in Alexandria”